News tagged ‘sales’

Apple today launched its online store in Russia. The move had been expected for quite some time. Reports from last year revealed that the Apple had registered a new company in Russia with intentions to launch direct sales in the country.

In order to expand into Russian territory, Apple as registered a company called Apple Rus and assigned Vitaly Morozk, the company's local legal advisor as its director general. It is alleged that Apple executives travelled to Moscow in 2011 to find premises for an Apple store but did not find anything suitable. Apple opened the iTunes Store online in 2009.

It's unclear when or whether the company intends to open any physical Apple Retail Stores in the country.

A new report from DigiTimes says volume production of a new 9.7-inch iPad will begin in July/August with shipments of five million units in Q3 2013.

The next-generation 9.7-inch iPad is expected to adopt a thin-film-type touch panel solution to reduce its weight by 20-30% and will adopt a slim bezel design to increase the display area. The new iPad's industrial design reportedly will also be modified, the sources said.

Apple is expected to ship a total of 8 million iPads in Q3 including old and new models.

Almost every iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch user faces a problem of listening music at home. Some use headphones, others listed through embedded speakers, however everybody wants to connect their gadget to some loud high quality home stereo system.

There tons of dock stations for various players and smartphones including ones for iPhone and iPod. However dock stations allow users to plug in just a single set of devices due to connection port incompatibilities. Even Apple changed it's port when iPhone 5 was released with lightning port. So if you actually bought expensive iPhone 4 dock station and realized you want iPhone 5 - you're in trouble, because a new dock station for iPhone 5 is needed. There are adapters and converters on the market that might help, but the idea is clear - there have to be some technology that would allow us to use different devices from various manufactures including iOS, Android, Windows Mobile, etc. Here comes Bluetooth. It is not just supported by almost all modern smartphones, players, tablets and even notebooks, it also does not require users to physically connect their gadget to a stereo, because it is wireless technology.

Today we want to take a look at Creative D200 - wireless speaker system that supports Bluetooth. While the quality of this device is quite good, the price is attractive as well. You can get one for about $100.

Today Fortune published its new Fortune 500 list, an annual ranking of the largest companies in the U.S. ranked by revenue. In the new list, Apple has risen to number 6 from its 17th spot in the last year’s rankings.

Last week, it was noted that Samsung is going to usher in a new “store-within-a-store” concept inside Best Buy stores to compete the Apple Shops, which are located in many locations of Best Buy for several years.

iOS version of Xiaoi (center and right) and Android version of Xiaoi (left)

As Shanghai Daily reports, Apple is facing a suit in China from a local company claiming that Siri infringes on its patent rights. The court in Shanghai will hold a pre-hearing today where Apple and the plaintiff, Shanghai Zhi Zhen, should exchange evidence. The report notes:

According to a report from The Economic Times, Apple plans to triple the size of its reseller network to 200 stores in India by 2015. Reportedly, Apple's vice-president (sales) for India, Europe, Middle-East and Africa Hugeues Asseman discussed some of these plans with key franchisee owners and trade partners during his visit to Mumbai last month. The report notes:

As Bloomberg reports, Samsung has confirmed rumors from last month that it is working on its own smart watch. Given the rumors that Apple is preparing to release its "iWatch" device as soon as this year, it seems that the two rivals will again compete head-to-head in this emerging market segment.

The Wall Street Journal published a new report outlining Samsung’s aggressive advertising in 2012 based on the latest data from research company Kantar Media. The report notes that Samsung significantly increased its phone ad spending from $78M in 2011 to $401M in 2012, 20 percent higher than $333M spend by Apple.

Taiwan's Commercial Times points to a research note issed by an analyst Kirk Yang from Barclays claiming that Apple is planning to launch a lower-cost iPhone and an iPhone 5S in the August/September timeframe.

The Wall Street Journal reports on recent Apple’s operations to increase sales in India, one of the fastest growing markets in the world. The company recently launched iTunes and Apple TV there. There also were rumors that Apple was planning to open retail stores in India.

In November, research company Strategy Analytics claimed that Samsung's Galaxy S III had become the best-selling smartphone worldwide in the third quarter of last year, taking advantage of iPhone 4S decreased sales ahead of the iPhone 5 launch.

The firm’s latest research published today shows that Apple easily retook the title for the fourth quarter of 2012 with the iPhone 5 shipments reaching 27.4 million units for 12,6 percent of the market.